Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has commissioned, or plans to commission, any research into (a) the potential benefits to be derived from the cultivation of hemp and (b) the number of products hemp can be used to produce.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Office commissioned several research projects on the potential of hemp as an industrial or novel crop in recent years. Brief information on these projects and others carried out in the UK are available on the DEFRA website. Further information may be found on the Interactive European Network for Industrial Crops and their Application (IENICA) website.

Agriculture

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether oil for use in the production of animal feed, biodiesel fuel and food products can be produced by processing hemp oil and what information it holds on other products that can be produced from the hemp plant.

Ross Finnie: Technically hemp oil could be used for these purposes, but for animal feed and biodiesel other materials, such as oilseeds, are more economically viable. Hemp oil use in the food sector would most likely be restricted to higher value products.

Agriculture

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will support the establishment of community farms to produce hemp and assist in the production of any other environmentally-friendly products.

Ross Finnie: The Executive has no specific plans to support the establishment of community farms to produce hemp or any other environmentally friendly products. However, provided that the eligibility criteria are met under the Arable Area Payments Scheme, area aid is available for hemp production. Further information may be obtained from any of the local SEERAD Area Offices.

Air Services

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funds it plans to make available to low cost or other carriers seeking to open up new routes from England to destinations in Scotland following the recent terrorist attacks in the United States of America.

Lewis Macdonald: The Scottish Executive has no specific budget provision for the promotion of new direct air links. The Executive will continue to have discussions with its agencies (enterprise networks and VisitScotland) on how best any available funding can be deployed for the greatest benefit of the Scottish economy and tourism.

Air Services

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the third supplementary answer to question S1F-1256 by Henry McLeish on 27 September 2001, what representations it has made or is making to Her Majesty’s Government in order to gain a public service obligation in respect of the Inverness to Gatwick air link.

Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive supports the case by The Highland Council for the imposition of measures to ensure access to Gatwick from Inverness. I am writing to the UK Government with a formal request to impose a Public Service Obligation on the Inverness-Gatwick route and to implement measures which will secure the slots required to maintain the service.

Arts

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any representations it has made to any museums and galleries elsewhere in the UK which hold works of art in trust with a view to ensuring that any such items are displayed in public museums and galleries throughout Scotland and whether it will detail what powers it has in this matter.

Allan Wilson: We have not made any such representations, nor do we have any powers in relation to such matters.

Body Piercing

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the outcome was of its consultation paper Regulation of Skin Piercing .

Malcolm Chisholm: An analysis of responses to the Scottish Executive’s consultation document on skin piercing is being published today and is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre and on the Executive’s websites.

Central Heating

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the £350 million announced for the central heating programme has been spent to date, what criteria have been used in allocating the investment and what plans it has for the programme over the next two years.

Jackie Baillie: Resources for the central heating programme have been allocated to ensure steady progress across all sectors of the stock. A total of £26 million has been allocated for 2001-02; £30 million has been allocated for 2002-03 and £40 million for 2003-04. Further resources will flow from community ownership and there will be investment by the power companies under the Energy Efficiency Commitment. Our plan is to ensure that by March 2004 all local authority stock lacking central heating has it and that, during 2004, all housing association stock lacking central heating has it. The programme will also be extended from 2004 so that local authorities can upgrade partial central heating systems to whole-house systems with priority being given to the elderly and disabled. The programme for the private sector will be completed by March 2006. The level of resources allocated will ensure that our plan is achieved.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12709 by Mr Jim Wallace on 21 February 2001, whether the Scottish Executive central research unit has completed its Crime and Criminal Justice Research Programme for 2001-04 and, if it has, how much funding it is planning to devote to research on domestic violence issues in each of the next three years.

Mr Jim Wallace: The new Crime and Criminal Justice Research Programme is likely to be published towards the end of the year. As with previous programmes, the new research programme will provide broad indications of those policy areas which might benefit from research. It is not always possible to anticipate specific needs. Domestic violence and domestic abuse more generally is likely to feature as a key policy area in the new research programme. It is not possible, however, to say at this time what specific research questions might have to be tackled and what amounts of funding might have to be devoted to such research over the next three years or so.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many treatment programmes for perpetrators of domestic abuse it is currently funding.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive provides funding to criminal justice social work services for the following programmes which focus solely on offenders convicted of domestic violence, as part of a probation order:

  Domestic Violence Probation Project (covering City of Edinburgh and Midlothian)

  Fergus Project (covering Angus)

  The Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders Intensive Probation Project (covering Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling), which is similarly funded by the Executive, also includes work with perpetrators of domestic violence but as part of a broader range of interventions.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new refuge places have become available as a result of the £2 million funding announced in its press release of 14 May 2001.

Ms Margaret Curran: As stated in the press release, the £2 million funding has provided an additional 42 refuge places and replaced or upgraded a further 27 refuge places. This is the first year of a three-year £10 million package to increase and improve refuge provision.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what formula it is using to calculate the need for new refuge places in each local authority area.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive has regard to the amount of provision already available in the local authority area against the level deemed to be necessary by the 1991 COSLA recommendations on refuge provision. The types of accommodation available against those deemed to be necessary, including the availability of special provision for women with specific needs, are also taken into account.

  With regard to the Refuge Development Programme, the Executive will approve bids in the first and second years for projects in areas where provision is most obviously lacking. Applications for the third year will be considered in 2002 in accordance with recommendations resulting from a planned review of the 1991 COSLA recommendations. This review will be carried out by a Working Group of the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to implement abuse prevention schemes in schools as referred to in the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland .

Ms Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive is currently awaiting the final evaluation of the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust’s "Respect" educational pilot project which was run in schools and youth groups in Edinburgh and Glasgow earlier this year. Careful consideration will be given to this evaluation and, if it is favourable, the Executive will consider how best to proceed with plans to implement this educational package in schools throughout Scotland.

  In addition, the action plan of the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland contains a number of recommendations on work with children and young people. It is intended to refer the question of how these might be implemented to a working group established and appointed by the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the number and dates of meetings held by the National Group set up to oversee the implementation of the National Strategy to Address Abuse in Scotland .

Ms Margaret Curran: The National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland has had two meetings to date. The first meeting took place on Tuesday 12 June, and the second on Tuesday 25 September. The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 15 January.

Domestic Abuse

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12714 by Jackie Baillie on 5 February 2001, what the outcome has been of its evaluation of the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust’s "Respect" educational project.

Ms Margaret Curran: A draft evaluation report on the "Respect" educational pilot has been received by the department and is being considered prior to its completion. Subject to this it would then be intended to publish it as well as using it to inform future policy and practice.

Food Standards Agency

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail all studies conducted and findings reached by the Food Standards Agency (Scotland) to date in pursuit of its agreed targets and objectives.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scientific studies conducted by the Food Standards Agency (Scotland) are detailed in the Food Standards Agency’s Food Research Programmes Annual Report. The first of these was published in October 2000 but did not contain specific Scottish research. The second report is due to be published later this month. There will in addition be a simplified report aimed at consumers. The report will be available through the agency’s website ( www.foodstandards.gov.uk ). Summaries of individual studies commissioned by Food Standards Agency (Scotland) can be obtained from their Aberdeen office and in due course will be posted on the website which is currently being restructured. Consultations are also conducted to inform policy, the results of which are also available on the website.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Alasdair Morgan (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3760 by Ross Finnie on 13 September 2001, when it will publish the 3rd report from the economic impact assessment group on foot-and-mouth disease.

Ross Finnie: The 3rd Foot-and-Mouth-Disease Impact Survey is currently under way and the final report will be published on Wednesday 19   December.

Fuel Poverty

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11123 by Jackie Baillie on 23 November 2000, what progress has been made in relieving households of fuel poverty in each local authority area.

Jackie Baillie: This information is not held centrally. The 2002 Scottish House Condition Survey will produce an estimate of the number of households in fuel poverty across Scotland.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the conditions applied by each health board for accepting ophthalmic opticians as providers of general ophthalmic services include any duty to provide, where appropriate, domiciliary practice.

Susan Deacon: No. Ophthalmic opticians are independent contractors and it is for them to decide in the circumstances of each case whether or not to undertake domiciliary visits to eligible people.

Judicial Appointments

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what training is compulsory for members of the judiciary once qualified.

Mr Jim Wallace: The judiciary are independent of ministers and there is no requirement for compulsory training. In practice, however, all new appointees as Judges or Sheriffs have a period of induction training before sitting alone. This training includes sitting with other experienced colleagues and a residential induction course. The form and content will depend to some extent on the experience of the individual who may or may not have given previous service in a judicial capacity. The independent Judicial Studies Committee also provide new appointees with written materials and guidance on taking office.

Judicial Appointments

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how often members of the judiciary are required to undertake refresher courses.

Mr Jim Wallace: The judiciary are independent of the executive and there are no formal requirements to undertake refresher training. The independent Judicial Studies Committee are responsible for judicial education and their future programmes do include provision for refresher courses every three years, together with local training initiatives and special courses on particular topics.

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the draft Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will be published in October, November or December this year.

Mr Jim Wallace: The draft Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was issued for consultation on 22 February 2001. Over 3,500 responses have been received and, as indicated in my answer to question S1O-03734 on 13 September 2001, the Bill is now being prepared for introduction to the Scottish Parliament later this year. This is reflected in the latest Land Reform Action Plan Progress Report , which issued on 27 September 2001, copies of which have been sent to all MSPs and placed in the Parliament’s reference centre (Bib. number 16399).

Nursing

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the likely composition of the new NHS bodies replacing health boards and trust boards does not currently include representatives from the Royal College of Nursing.

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will now include representatives from the Royal College of Nursing on the new NHS bodies replacing health boards and trusts.

Susan Deacon: Our policy is to ensure that all staff have the opportunity to contribute appropriately to decision making in NHS Scotland, without favouring one profession or professional organisation over another.

  Specifically, all 15 new NHS Boards include – as a full member – the Staff Side Chair of the Area Partnership Forum. Staff Side Chairs are drawn from all staff groups and representative organisations, including the Royal College of Nursing.

  Additionally, to promote opportunities for clinicians to be involved in local decision making, each NHS Board is creating an Area Clinical Forum, which will bring together the chairs of all the local professional advisory committees, including the Nursing & Midwifery Committee. The chair of the forum has a full seat on the NHS Board.

  Within the new structures, responsibility and accountability for direct patient care is still led at NHS Trust level. Trust boards have been replaced by a Trust management team, more closely focused around delivery of services to patients. All 28 Trust management teams must include, by law, a registered nurse or midwife as an Executive Director.

Nursing

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide funding for the retraining required by former nurses before returning to practice.

Susan Deacon: The issue of retraining and returning to practice is one of the important issues to be addressed at the nurse recruitment and retention convention I announced recently, which will be held on 19 November 2001.

Nursing

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses currently employed by the NHS also undertake work for nursing agencies.

Susan Deacon: The information is not held centrally. Individual NHS trusts may, however, have this data as part of the information they need to comply with the working time regulations.

Planning

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received concerning the planning application in respect of Churchill Drive, Broomhill, Glasgow.

Lewis Macdonald: No representations have been received by the Scottish Executive about any planning application in Churchill Drive, Broomhill, Glasgow.

Planning

Fiona McLeod (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what constitutes a completed development under Article 3(2) of The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Amendment (No.2) Order 2001 (SSI 2001/266).

Lewis Macdonald: The Executive cannot provide authoritative interpretation of statute. That is a matter for the courts.

  It is our view, however, that for a mobile phone base station, for example, to be considered complete, no further operations that constitute development (within the meaning set out in section 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997) should remain to be carried out. In other words, for a base station under construction prior to 23 July to continue to benefit from the pre-23 July permitted development regime after that date, all works on the site involving development would have had to be carried out before 7 August.

Population

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-17480 by Susan Deacon on 24 September 2001, why it does not consider it feasible or desirable to attempt to influence the trend in the Scottish birth rate.

Susan Deacon: The decision of whether to have a family and how large that family should be is a personal one which, in a free and democratic society, cannot and must not be dictated by the state.

Rail Network

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made or plans to make to Railtrack on progress in taking forward the proposals set out in Railtrack’s 2001 Network Management Statement and in particular those relating to (a) the Larkhall to Milngavie rail scheme, including the re-opening of the Maryhill to Anniesland chord, (b) re-opening of the Stirling–Alloa–Kincardine route and (c) electrification of the Edinburgh suburban line; whether it will report on the progress being made on each of those proposals, and what action it has taken, or plans to take, to ensure that Railtrack fulfil the commitments made in the statement.

Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with Railtrack on a wide range of issues.

Roads

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive by what legislative action, and to what extent, road tolling has been devolved.

Sarah Boyack: The tolling of new roads in Scotland is allowed by Part II of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. The right to levy tolls on the Forth, Erskine and Tay bridges is established by separate Acts specific to each bridge. Part III of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 permits a local authority to introduce a scheme for road user charging within its area. The Executive has no plans to seek powers for any other forms of road tolling during the lifetime of this Parliament.

Rural Development

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the Minister for Environment and Rural Development learned about the provision of services to remote and rural communities during his visit to Canada in July.

Ross Finnie: My visit to Canada was designed to enable me to hear about and see many of the rural development activities under way in Canada, and in particular activities related to the delivery of services in rural areas. The visit was a very useful one, and I brought back many lessons and ideas about the delivery of services in rural communities. The Executive will be drawing on these as we take forward our commitment to ensuring that quality of services should depend on what you need, not where you are.

Schools

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3704 by Mr Jack McConnell on 6 September 2001, when it expects COSLA to complete its consultation on a code for rural school closures.

Mr Jack McConnell: COSLA has been giving consideration to preparing a code of practice on school closures in response to a recommendation by the Parliament’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee. This has been a matter for COSLA, and the Executive has not been engaged with them on it.

  I now understand that COSLA has reached the view that the issues they were considering cannot be satisfactorily addressed through the provision of a code and has decided to abandon its work on the code of practice on school closures.

Scottish Executive Publications

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of launching, publishing and distributing its publication Communiqué: The Scottish Executive’s Newsletter on Europe and External Relations issue one – September 2001, and what budget has been allocated to the continued publication of the newsletter in each of the next two years.

Mr Jack McConnell: The first edition of Communiqué  cost £1,615 to design, print and add to the Scottish Executive website. A total of 6,000 copies were produced. The cost of distribution to MSPs, Scottish MEPs, local authorities, European information centres, universities, the Consular Corps in Scotland, UK missions overseas and a range of public and private sector organisations in Scotland was £280.

  It is envisaged that approximately three issues a year may be published, but how often Communiqué is produced and how it is developed will be considered in light of feedback on the first issue, and reviewed regularly. No specific budget has yet been allocated for the publication given the scale of expenditure involved which can be met from the external relations budget.

Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

Marilyn Livingstone (Kirkcaldy) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in setting up the review of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) indicated in the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning’s guidance letter to SHEFC in November 2000.

Ms Wendy Alexander: I am today announcing the commencement of a review of higher education in Scotland with the issue of a first stage consultation paper. This paper focuses on the past performance of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) as part of its quinquennial review. It also invites comment on issues on the future context in which SHEFC could be expected to operate to inform a second stage, wider ranging consultation in the new year. The review will be concluded around May 2002. Copies of the consultation paper have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 16611).

Sexual Offences

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11730 by Mr Jim Wallace on 10 January 2001, what the outcomes have been of discussions with the End Child Prostitution and Pornography Trafficking Campaign and of the public consultation exercise which was to take place earlier this year.

Mr Jim Wallace: In July 2001 the Scottish Executive and the UK Government jointly published proposals for amendments to the Sex Offenders Act 1997 following our review of the Act with interested groups, including ECPAT(UK). The consultation period for these ends on 19 October 2001. We have also consulted separately on related recommendations in the report of Lady Cosgrove’s Expert Panel on Sex Offending. That consultation period ended last month. We will decide what legislative proposals to bring forward in the light of the responses to both these consultations.

Sexual Offences

Mr Gil Paterson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11534 by Mr Jim Wallace on 7 December 2000, whether there have been any further developments relating to research on vulnerable witnesses and investigation of the treatment of sexual offence witnesses in court.

Mr Jim Wallace: Two research projects are currently being developed. The first will aim to collect data on the operation of the current law of evidence in sex offence cases, to provide a baseline for the future evaluation of the impact of any changes resulting from the Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland) Bill. The second will aim to examine the use and effectiveness of the current provisions of the law of evidence in relation to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. It is intended to provide some base line data which could be used to assess the impact of any future changes in the law of evidence in relation to vulnerable witnesses and the impact of other provisions designed to support these witnesses during the prosecution process.

Sport

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it and the Scottish Athletics Federation will be represented at the forthcoming meeting between the UK Minister for Sport and UK Athletics to discuss issues arising from the performance of the UK athletics squad at the recent world athletics championships in Edmonton.

Allan Wilson: No. The Scottish Athletics Federation view UK Athletics as the appropriate body to deal with this meeting from their sports point of view and have confidence in the abilities of their UK colleagues to address the issues raised.

Sustainable Development

Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a progress report on the work of the Ministerial Group on Sustainable Scotland and their future work programme.

Ross Finnie: The Ministerial Group on Sustainable Scotland has been a key mechanism for joined-up thinking and action on sustainable development in the Scottish Executive. Since taking on the Environment portfolio and becoming chair of the group in March this year I have been taking stock of the important progress so far. It is now time to push the sustainability agenda forward into the next phase.

  At its meeting on 12 September, the ministerial group agreed an action plan for the next four months to achieve this. The Scottish Executive will:

  Further strengthen the ministerial group by widening its ministerial membership and appointing a third external member.

  Develop and publish a clear statement of what sustainable development means for the Scottish Executive, and how it will work towards greater sustainability.

  Develop ways to measure progress towards sustainability in the light of the consultation on sustainable development indicators which closed on Friday 28 September.

  Set up a sustainable development forum to build broad partnerships to work towards a sustainable Scotland. The forum, which will operate until May 2003 in the first instance, will bring together the Scottish members of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, business, the trade unions, NDPBs and NGOs.

  We will do all this by January 2001 and further details will be announced in due course.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding for marketing will be made available to VisitScotland following the terrorist attack in the United States of America.

Mr Alasdair Morrison: We are urgently assessing the likely effect of the current world situation on the tourism industry. However, VisitScotland funding this year is at a record level. As an immediate measure, it is working on up-weighting spend in the UK domestic and European markets.

Warm Deal

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive,  further to the answer to question S1O-1270 by Mr Frank McAveety on 2 March 2001, how much of the warm deal budget has been spent to date.

Jackie Baillie: Local authorities spent almost £700,000 in quarter 1 of the current financial year. Figures for quarter 2 are not yet available. Eaga spent over £4 million up to 21 September 2001.